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My son and I often have these sorts of arguments about who would win (in a fight) between a great white shark and a nile crocodile, or a polar bear and an african lion, or even between Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. Naturally these are all purely hypothetical scenario’s, and all I can offer is a best guess – but which nevertheless fires off a healthy debate.

However I can offer “precise” answers when he asks about who would win (in a race) between a cheetah and an ostrich, or a mako shark and a sailfish, or even a Bugatti Veyron and a Koenigsegg – so here they are.

NOTE: these lists are not comprehensive – they only include those of interest to my son and I.

Road (as at December 2010)

Bugatti Veyron Super Sport (429 kph)

SSC Ultimate Aero TT (411 kph)

Koenigsegg CCX (400 kph)

Saleen S7 Twin Turbo (397 kph)

McLaren F1 (384 kph)

Gumpert Apollo (352 kph)

Ascari A10 (352 kph)

Jaguar XJ220 (347 kph)

Ferrari Enzo (347 kph)

Pagani Zonda F (344 kph)

Land Animals

Cheetah (112 kph)

Pronghorn Antelope (98 kph)

Wildebeest (80 kph)

African Lion (80 kph)

Thomson’s Gazelle (80 kph)

Cape Hunting Dog (72 kph)

Coyote (69 kph)

Hyena (64 kph)

Zebra (64 kph)

Greyhound (63 kph)

Whippet (57 kph)

Domestic Rabbit (56 kph)

Giraffe (51 kph)

Warthog (48 kph)

Grizzly Bear (48 kph)

Domestic Cat (48 kph)

Human (45 kph)

Elephant (40 kph)

Black Mamba Snake (32 kph)

Domestic Pig (18 kph)

Air

Spine-tailed swift (171 kph)

Frigate bird (153 kph)

Spur-winged goose (142 kph)

Red-breasted merganser (129 kph)

White-rumped swift (124 kph)

Canvasback duck (116 kph)

Eider duck (113)

Teal (109 kph)

Mallard (105 kph)

Pintail (105 kph)

* The peregrine falcon is by far the fastest of them all – but in its “power dive” when it has been recorded doing 347 kph. In level flight however it does not feature in this list.

Wolraad Woltemade and her sister ship John Ross were in their time the most powerful of their kind on the planet. This pair of South African tugs, or salvage vessels, patrolled the seas around Cape Point and further afield. According to contract, one of them was required to remain in port to handle any emergency, while the other was free to roam the high seas competing for international salvalge prizes. And work there certainly was – with the constant traffic of overweight supertankers going around the point there was almost always someone in trouble.

Wolraad Woltemade was built by Robb Caledon Shipbuilders in Scotland and delivered to Safmarine in Cape Town during 1976, while her sister ship John Ross was built by the Durban shipyards of Elgin Brown & Hamer. These immensely powerful vessels were powered by two Mirrlees-Blackstone type KVMR16 diesels with 19,200 bhp (14,132 kW) – providing unmatched pulling power. They were 94.6 metres long. Ownership of these two sisters has been transferred between Safmarine, Pentow Marine and Smit Marine Cape Town. Current owners have renamed John Ross to Smit Amandla.

The End

Wolraad Woltemade’s time has unfortunately run out. The ‘Standby Tug Contract’ requires the presence of one tug in a South African port at any given time, a duty that has for some years been taken up by her sister tug Smit Amandla. This contract was due for renewal in November 2009, but the South African goverment decided not to renew – leaving our coast unprotected for the first time in 30 years. She was unable to find a buyer, and her somewhat ignomius end is that she has been sold as scrap.

As can be seen from the accompanying photograph, she is riding high, and showing signs of her age. All insignia have been removed in preparation for the breakers. She has since sailed from Cape Town, appropriately her last port of call, and is now awaiting her fate at the hands of the breakers.

Rest in peace, WW.

The Legend

Wolraad Woltemade (c.1708 – June 1, 1773) was a South African dairy farmer, who died while rescuing sailors from the wreck of the ship De Jonge Thomas in Table Bay on 1 June 1773. Read about the legend of the man here on Wikipedia

Buddy, the charismatic brindle Boxer brought to the small screen by Toyota South Africa and its marketing partner of nearly half a centurys’ standing, Draftfcb Johannesburg, has featured in a few television commercials. These commercials are amongst the few that I really don’t mind watching – over and over and over again.

In this commercial the canine star is off to a dry Karoo farm for the Toyota Hilux. Buddy abandons any attempts to behave with sophistication and grace. Instead, he has fun on the farm mocking the sheep he encounters and making bad jokes, while recognising the Hilux’s toughness. This is my favourite “Buddy” commercial – “what a chop”!

Here Buddy is strolling through a used car lot, quite adamant that he “doesn’t do tricks!!!”.

If you have any other links to share of really classic commercials that have been made, please post a link – I would love to hear about them. (Please note – this is NOT an invitation for you to market your own product – regardless of how good you think it is, or of how important you think your miracle pharmaceutical product might be – I will not approve/moderate your post)

The North Yungas Road in the Bolivian Andes has been officially declared as the “world’s most dangerous road” – for motorists! Mountain bike enthusiasts however, are cut from a different cloth, and it has become a favorite destination for downhill racing – now that has got to be a serious adrenalin rush!

It is just short of 70 km long and runs from La Paz to Coroico, descending over 3,500 metres and regular occurrences of 800 metre abysses and impossibly narrow hairpin curves. One wouldn’t expect a road leaving one of the highest cities on the planet to go uphill – but in fact it does – almost five kilometres above sea level, where even a normal internal combustion engine struggles to ‘breathe’.

On average between 200 – 300 fatalities are recorded every year. This is freakish – that is (playing with statistics) – one person dying every 3 days! The route is littered with the remnants of many, many accidents, with many trucks and buses lying wrecked, at the bottom. They will probably never be recovered.

The buses and heavy trucks navigate this road, as this is the only route available in the area. Buses crowded with locals go in any weather, and try to beat the incoming traffic to the curves. One of the local road rules specifies that the downhill driver never has the right of way and must move to the outer edge of the road. This forces fast vehicles to stop so that passing can be negotiated safely.

Because of the extreme dropoffs, single-lane width, and lack of guardrails, the road is extremely dangerous. Further still, rain and fog can make visibility precarious, the road surface muddy, and loosen rocks from the hillsides above. On July 24, 1983, a bus veered off the Yungas Road and into a canyon, killing more than 100 passengers in what is said to be Bolivia’s worst road accident.

High in the Andes, they are building a new road, a bypass to replace the old one. But this is Bolivia, and already it has been 20 years in the making. Who knows when it will be complete? Until it is, people will have to continue offering up their prayers, and taking their lives in their hands on the most dangerous road in the world.